'Well I'll come again. You'll let me, won't you?' said Bride, and not
content with shaking hands, she held up her round rosy mouth for a kiss.

'Bless you, love,' kind Mrs. Fairchild could not resist saying, as she
stooped to her.

'She is a very nice mamma, isn't she, Alie?' said Biddy with
satisfaction, when they found themselves out in the street again.

'Yes,' said Rosalys. But she spoke rather absently. She was wondering
what made Bridget so nice sometimes, and sometimes so very tiresome and
heedless.

'I wonder if it would have been better for her if she was more like that
little Celestina,' she thought. 'I'm sure they're very strict with her,
and yet I'm sure she's very fond of her mother and very obedient. But it
must be rather a dull life for a little girl, only she seems so womanly;
as if she really felt she was useful.'

It was almost dinner-time--their dinner-time, that is to say--when the
children reached the Rectory, and there was something of a scramble to
get hands washed, hair smoothed, and thick boots changed so as to be in
time and not keep papa and mamma waiting. Randolph came into the
dining-room, carrying the parcel of books.

'Papa,' he said, 'these are the books you told Redding to order for
you--at least there are some of them, and if they are right, or if
you'll mark down which of them are not right, Fairchild the bookseller
will order what you want at once.'